D&D 4E Needing a crash course in 4e to DM

[Semah G Noj]

The podcasts are incredibly helpful and hilarious too.

 

[Terwox]

I recommend having your players print out power cards for their characters. It will save you a lot of time in the beginning if your players are new as well.

I recently did this and it saved a LOT of books being passed around.

 

[Mircoles]

I paste pictures of the monsters into a grid in Excel and print that, then cut them out. Works like a charm so long as nobody turns the fan on.

I paste them onto foamboard. It works great so far.

 

[Henry]

You know, a lot of people harp on page 42 in the DMG as the King of Pages, but I find just as much use out of pages 184 and 185, how to build your own custom monsters. If you can't find a monster in the Monster Manual that works for you, following the guidelines in those two pages can give you anything you want tailored for the current level of your PCs.

Example I threw at someone on RPGNet who wanted a small water elemental to challenge his level 1 PCs with:

Water Elemental
Small Level 1 Brute, XP 100

S 13 C 11
D 16 I 8
W10 Ch 13

Hit points 31
AC 14
Fort 14
Ref 16
Will 14

*(At-will, standard action, melee) Watery Fist, +4 vs. AC, dmg 2d6+3
(Standard, Recharge 6, Close Burst 1) Typhoon vortex, +1 vs. Reflex, dmg 2d10+3

Five of these would be a challenge for a five-person level 1 party. If you want him to be an Elite, then double the hit points, increase the AC, Reflex, and Fortitude by 2 points each, give him a +2 to all saving throws, give him an action point, and have him do the typhoon blast automatically when bloodied.

Between this, and page 42, I could probably run a complete game off the cuff.

 

[Goumindong]

Ok, I need to grasp 4e in about 2 weeks. I'm still on 3.5 myself, but have opted to run a 4e module for... reasons.

What're the big differences, are minis strongly suggested, these kinds of questions I need answered.

Also need information on LFR and how that modifies straight 4e.

O.K. a short run down: First, things you will need/want

1. A Battle map/grid: The game is very precise in what its abilities do. Everything is measured in one unit, and diagonals are counted as 1 unit. Powers will be listed as "push 1" or "Push 3" which means you move the enemy 3 units away from the origin of the power.

2. Power cards: Power cards make it a lot easier for players new to the game(or not) to have an easier time understanding what their powers do and whether or not they can or have used them

3. Markers: Powers have lots of various status effects. Its good to have tokens of some sort which you can use to make it easier to determine any status effects or marks on the target. If you're using a foam base, string and push pins make a great way to cordon off a zone that your wizard has created. Checkers make a good "mark" since you can color code them. Etc etc etc.

Second, actions:

1. Players, NPCs, and monsters use different creation rules. Everything that is not a player is designed to be a prop for the DM.

2. Rounds are broken down into turns. A turn is the initiative order for that creature

3. Every creature gets 3 actions on their turn, a minor action, a move action, and a standard action. You can always "trade down" a bigger action(minor<move<std) for a smaller action.

4. Every creature gets 1 opportunity action per turn except their own(any turn, so if its a combat between 10 guys, that can be 10 OAs/round!). This means a fighter can make a boat load of opportunity attacks without any feats that let him. But no more than 1 per turn.

5. Every Creature gets 1 immediate interrupt per ROUND. These also cannot be used on their turn. And you must have a power or ability that lets you use them(rather than OA's, which are intrinsic).

Third, Powers, resources, and resting:

1. There are four types of powers: Daily, Encounter, Utility, And At-Will

2. These powers are pretty self explanatory: you can use a daily power once a day, an encounter power once an encounter, an at-will power any time you want, and utility powers are either daily, encounter, or at-will, but classified differently for the purposes of powers which affect other powers.

3. Players also have Action Points, Healing Surges, and Second Winds, and item uses.

4. You can spend 1 action point per encounter, it gives you an extra standard action on that turn. You can use one second wind per encounter, it gives you +2 defense till the start of your next turn and lets you spend a healing surge. Healing surges are resources which you spend in order to gain your healing surge value. Item uses allow you to use a power from an item. Which you get 1 per day.

5. Short rest: takes 5 minutes. All players regain their encounter duration powers and utility powers classified as encounter powers. All players may spend as many healing surges as they want and regain that many hit points.

6. Milestone: Every 2 encounters that you take a short rest between. Players gain 1 daily item use, and 1 action point. You cannot use that daily item use on an items daily power you have already used, but you can use it for a different item

7. Extended rest: All players regain their encounter duration powers, daily powers, healing surges, hit points. Action points are reset to 1. Daily item uses is reset to 1. If you are paragon tier(lvl 11 -20) you get 2 daily item uses. If you are epic tier(lvl 21-30) you gain 3 daily item uses. You may only take an extended rest once every 24 hours, it takes up 6 hours of rest or so.

Fourthly, movement

1. Movement is very similar to 3e with a few exceptions: Running, and Shifting(5 ft step)

2. Running gives +2 to your move speed but grants everyone combat advantage(Kinda like flanking no matter where they are)

3. There are no limits to the number of squares or times you can shift in a round. Shifting is a move action and it lets you move one square without provoking OA(generally). So if you wanted, you could spend your std action to shift, and your move action to shift and move 2 squares without provoking OA.

4. You cannot move and then run, or run and then move in the same turn. You can run and then run, or move and then move. You can shift and then run, or shift and then move however. So if your dwarf wanted he could run 14 squares in a single round(std: run, move:run), or your elf could go 14 without running(std: move, move: move), or 18 in a run(std:run, move:run)

That should cover the basics. After that all you are doing is reading what it says on the powers and doing it. Pretty simple, lots of fun.

 

[Notmousse]

Unfortunately the last week or so went by without DnD prepping, but I'll be looking into these suggestions ASAP.

Thank you for the info, and I'll be back soon for clarification. Here's hoping for a good game ran.

 

[grickherder]

I paste them onto foamboard. It works great so far.

My friend just turned me onto to cheap self adhesive vinyl floor tiles from home depot. They are like 30 cents for a square foot tile, have a sticky side and you just put the paper you print out of the printer on them and then cut them with kitchen scissors.